Libous: Well, there’s always the IDC

A nugget from my chat last week with Sen. Tom Libous, a Binghamton Republican who chairs the Senate Republican Campaign Committee: he sees one of the GOP’s assets as the renegade quartet of Democrats known as the IDC.

After mentioning that Republicans enjoy a strong cash advantage, Libous was more explicit than I expected in describing the Independent Democratic Conference as his friends in waiting. The four IDC senators have been critical of their old Democratic compatriots — Sen. Jeff Klein, D-Bronx, even described the regular Dems as a “circular firing squad,” something which Libous happily quoted — and provided a critical cushion for Republicans on a few votes in the past two years.

“We also have the other component of working with the IDC. They seem to be working very well with us, and are a stark contrast to the way the regular Democratic conference behaves. It marginalizes the Democrats significantly,” said Libous. “Their principles are more in line with us than the regular Democrats.”

The IDC has positioned itself well if, somehow, both regular Democrats and Republicans fail to capture an outright majority. High-stakes games of “let’s make a deal” will shake out